OREANDA-NEWS. The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that it established Yokohama Rubber Singapore Pte. Ltd. in April. The new subsidiary, capitalized at USD 20 million (all equity capital from Yokohama Rubber), is scheduled to begin full operations from mid-May.

To date, Yokohama Rubber has had a branch office in Singapore engaged in the procurement of natural rubber from Southeast Asian nations. The decision to establish a local subsidiary is in line with the Yokohama Group's plan to raise the efficiency of its raw material procurement function on a global basis.

The new subsidiary initially will be engaged in procuring natural rubber for Yokohama Rubber's Japan plants in fiscal 2015, but the plan is to expand its natural rubber procurement business to also cover the needs of the Yokohama Rubber Group's overseas plants from fiscal 2016. In the future, operations will be expanded to include the procurement of raw materials other than natural rubber. The new subsidiary also plans to strengthen raw material inventory controls as part of its efforts to establish a more stable and efficient global procurement structure. The existing Singapore office will continue operating until it completes the handover of its functions to the new subsidiary.